


Beginning Again

by Kelkat9



Series: Dark Journeys [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Dark Doctor (Doctor Who), F/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 04:39:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6038467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelkat9/pseuds/Kelkat9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rose Tyler gazed into the time vortex, she looked into time and time looked into her.  She couldn't see Time's plan for her or the Doctor.  Fate and destiny isn't always what you think it will be.  But love is eternal even when the one you love is on a dark path to destruction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beginning Again

**Author's Note:**

> Just something I cobbled together for a prompt. It's a bit of a Darker Rose meets a Darker Tenth Doctor. I'll probably add one shots to this verse. This one is told from Rose's POV. The next one will be from Ten's POV.

When did it start? Rose mused as she tucked herself away in the shadows. The Doctor stood on a cliff edge not far from her, watching a city burn before him. His great brown coat flared out behind him as the glow of the flames highlighted the dark shadows of his face.

Still and blending into the alcove, Rose remained invisible to any observers. Although she wondered if he sensed she was there. She’d been watching him for a while. How long she wasn’t sure. Time was her mistress, a gift as elusive and intangible as gravity that fixed her to the planet surface. But she still lacked a Time Lord’s ability to measure time. 

It ebbed and flowed around both her and the Doctor differently than most beings. And it was changing both of them. How and why she didn’t know. All she knew for certain was the yearning to run and wrap her arms around him. But with that yearning came caution to hold back. Darkness crept forward across the surface of the planet, its shadows reached out for him and yet they dare not touch him. 

And she wondered when did their lives spin out of control and slide down into such perilous and ambiguous morality? When did they become part of a shadowy, grey world in between light and darkness?

But she knew the answer. It started in the basement of Henriks. A slight prick of her time line twisted into a knot tumbling forward, tangling itself in the web of time, binding her to a new path. It didn’t matter she was human and an insignificant ephemeral. Time chose her – challenged her to accept a part in the multiverse as a defender and protector. And she accepted the challenge.

How many times had she stepped forward to stop chaos from prevailing? The answer was complicated. When she was with him, her role was less prominent in the grander scheme of how the universe worked. She’d absorbed his words, the hard lessons and made up her own mind. Her ideals became fluid and evolved just like her feelings for him.

It started in a whirlwind of teasing, light hearted banter and infatuation. A soft smile lit her face as long buried memories surfaced. Cardiff, Charles Dickens…Downing Street, Slitheen; a bunker with a Dalek and the London Blitz dancing and realizing how much they wanted to dance with each other. It wasn’t love at first sight. It was more and better than that. 

Love curled around her soul, warming her and fixing her to walk a path with him. And she held it to her in secret, a precious thing she’d share with no one but him. Even when separated in another universe defending a different Earth, it pulsed within her, a reminder that love was bigger than one person or even a whole world.

Even there hidden amongst rocks and gravel. She watched him oversee destruction he caused and she couldn’t help but see a tiny bit of the man she loved…a good man…a broken man, one with twin hearts that beat for more than selfish needs.

Trainers scuffing against the gravel, he ambled away. In a gust of hot air tugging at her hair, the city exploded. Hand steadying herself on the cool, rough rock, the ground trembled and cracked open swallowing the burning remains of thousands of smugglers. The Doctor didn’t even flinch. 

Her stomach twisted and she squeezed her eyes shut as thousands of time lines snapped and ended. The only solace and softening of the destruction was her intervention. She had arrived in a woosh of time, tumbling head first into danger and in the middle of a weapons auction. 

It was typical for her. Following the TARDIS was never easy and often painful as she whirled and twisted through the vortex. But like the TARDIS she always landed where she was needed. Only these days, the reason she was needed was to counteract the chaotic result of the Doctor’s actions. One glance at the weapons displayed for sale and her breath caught with temporal reverberations. With a snort as the weasel-like smugglers dragged her off, she knew why he would come.

She tried to warn them that the Oncoming Storm was about to pay them a visit. But the arrogant never listened to such warnings. She sighed as they hefted her down a long stone corridor and checked to make sure the cloaking mechanism on her vortex manipulator was functioning. It wasn’t bad as prisons went, stone floor and ceiling with reinforced metal bars. No guards. They were over confident and chucked her deep down in the ground to be forgotten or used later for some profit bearing purposes.

She wasn’t worried. More bored by the whole ordeal but then she had no intention of staying long. Time wouldn’t allow it. Besides if there was one thing she could always count on, it was how the oppressed could see the truth. Her warnings didn’t land on only deaf ears. 

Half way through her escape, she found those who feared galactic repercussions from their masters’ illegal activities. It was a good thing she had a talent for organizing rebellions and escapes. The city erupted with a few small explosions as those with more survival instinct than greed fled. The smugglers and their caches of advanced temporal weapons were left to reap their reward Doctor style.

When he arrived in a storm of dust and riots, he didn’t even give them a chance. 

The wheeze and groan of a familiar friend distracted her from the grim memories and caused her to smile. The old girl -- that glorious time ship knew about the changes in both her pilot and his former companion. There was no doubt in Rose that the TARDIS was part of time’s plan. 

Earthquakes shook the ground. It was time to leave. That was her life. Always moving on and helping where she could. As much as she loved traveling and seeing the universe…well multiverse for a while; she missed having a home – a place to kick off her shoes and dip into a long hot bath while enjoying a cuppa. 

Was there a choice she could have made to change things? A soft, secret chuckle shivered up her spine. No, she couldn’t deny the beat that pulsed deep inside of her like a song beckoning her onward. It was a siren of a far greater magnitude then those that led sailors astray in the legends of old. She craved it: the adventure, the discovery, partnering with a Time Lord who was even more tangled in time than her. 

She tapped out a few commands on her Vortex Manipulator and disappeared in a flash of light jumping to her next stop on her journey through time and space. 

Earth, Chiswick just down the street from the Noble residence. It was a sunny morning with a crisp chill in the air. Zipping up her blue leather coat, she settled on a bench and watched the Doctor bounce out of the TARDIS toward his companion, Donna Noble. He was all smiles and charm. He had to be. Donna was smart. She wouldn’t allow him to cross any lines. 

Rose knew about the Racnoss and Donna and what he had almost done. Donna had seen him bathed in blood, anger and revenge. She understood it was up to her to stop him. It was only when he dropped Donna off for a visit with her family that he unleashed the dark Time Lord within.

The sun shined brightly and she tipped her face up to enjoy its warmth. He would spend some time on Earth for a short while. It was a well-earned break and her stomach growled for a twenty-first century Earth meal. With a tongue touched grin, she sprang up and wandered down the street to seek out well earned chips.

Her mind wandered remembering life on this Earth and another. A little boy holding hands with a blonde woman passed by her. Sometimes she thought about family left behind. She could spend a lifetime suffering bone aching regrets and mire herself in what ifs. But deep down, she knew her family’s life wasn’t hers. They had their own paths to follow. 

She was a defender and it was that calling which caused her path to diverge from theirs. Someone had to negotiate with aliens possessing far superior technology with aggressive demands and an eye on Earth’s resources. Rose was the logical choice.

The moment she transmatted to the Fedikki ship, their arrogant, demanding ways changed. Two words from her translating device explained: Bad Wolf. The bottom dropped out of her stomach and the room spun. She tried not to let on how much those words caused her to tremble with apprehension. 

Her face schooled into a hard mask, she stood by and observed the arguments amongst the Fedikki leaders. Her translator garbled part of it but she gleaned they saw her as some mythological warrior and a harbinger of doom. 

Further complicating matters was when another race, the Om, enemies of the Fedikki, arrived putting Rose and the Earth in the middle of a war. Her teleport device malfunctioned. Explosions rocked the ship and she raced through crowds of panicked crew shouting into her communicator to warn Torchwood. Fire flashed in the corridor and the ship veered sending her stumbling into what looked like a transport pod. 

And it transported her, but not to Earth or any other planet she might recognize. Instead she ended up having an unpleasant conversation in the middle of a golden desert with god-like creatures. They took offence to temporally enhanced beings from another universe. In short order, the shimmering, gaseous creatures ordered her permanent removal from their universe. She managed to transmit one short goodbye message to her family before she was violently thrust through the Howling. It ripped and tore at her until she landed with a thump on a metal grating in a space station. And it wasn’t any space station. The Shadow Proclamation was not amused.

With rhinoceros coppers growling and aiming weapons at her, she once again found herself running and not the fun kind. With luck, she ran into a Time Agent being escorted to a holding cell. A minor scuffle and a sprained wrist later, she knicked his vortex manipulator and disappeared to another less police monitored space station. Or perhaps a better description would be seedy space bar. And from there a new life unfolded.

A groan vibrated in her chest at the greasy, salty chips courtesy of an intergalactic credit care obtained by means she conveniently shoved to the back of her mind. Her thoughts turned once again to the Doctor. He was getting worse with his little jaunts to let off steam and punish the unjust. And that was the kicker. 

He hadn’t lost complete control…yet. Be it blowing up weapons manufacturing plants or freeing certain political prisoners at critical times in a planet’s development, he seemed to enjoy living on the edge. He always did but this was different. It was like he was daring the universe to strike back at him. Sometimes it was him making things right; giving a boost to the down trodden so they could have their reward or vengeance. But she couldn’t ignore the dark glint in his eyes and the arrogant tilt of his chin as he enjoyed a tiny bit of his own revenge. As much as she agreed with much of what he did, he often crossed moral line. People who should be dead, lived and it was only a miracle no reapers had appeared.

She shuddered at that thought. Each act she could see him watching and waiting like a child poking a wild animal until it reacted. Only this wild animal was the universe and one day it would push back with far more than claws and teeth. Unless she stopped him. Up until this point, she’d been repairing and doing damage control where she could. But soon that wouldn’t be enough. When was it time for her to directly intervene? That was the key. Her gut twinged every time she took a step toward him, twisting and cramping warning her off. It had to be the right moment.

Waiting hurt because she loved him. Even when she was tossed around the vortex or ended up shot or with broken bones fixing his mess, she still loved him. Many times as she huddled in a hole with explosions rocking the ground and choking on a mouthful of dirt she wondered why she was doing this? Why did she suffer? The answer: Love wasn’t simple. It wasn’t a prince rescuing a princess from a dragon. It was the princess falling for the dragon and saving him from the prince and those prejudiced against his scales and sharp teeth.

The dragon was her best mate. He showed her the ashes and ruins of the wicked or greedy; but he also showed her simple wonders of such elegant beauty, the intensity of it brought tears to her eyes. His scales were rough and coarse. His fire could singe all those who opposed him but not her. 

And time had woven them together even as they pushed and pulled at one another; shouted and argued over right and wrong. Tighter and tighter, time bound the threads of their lives until they were almost inseparable. But they were separated as if Atropos herself snipped away bits and pieces of them. 

Separation changed each of them in different ways. She was older, harder but wiser. Many people had come and gone from her life and all left their mark – some good and some scarring. But his memory stayed with her. Brown eyes, a dazzling smile and that gorgeous, wild hair of his brought a smile to her face; even when she watched a planet burn or saw the bodies of those she couldn’t help bathed in alien sunlight. 

She didn’t expect him to stay still. He would go on without her and find new companions. She wanted that for him. When he was alone, was when that dark dragon took a hold of him and fire and rage burned across the universe.

Tossing the remainder of her chips aside, she watched people stream down the street. The itch to move on twinged between her shoulder blades. She walked back toward the TARDIS, feeling the old girl singing to her. But it wasn’t a song of welcome home. Not yet.

Again she followed him, watching from a distance as he and Donna visited markets and stopped an invasion of snail warriors. That one left her laughing so hard, tears ran down her face and she was sure he knew she was there. The expression on his face when his beloved coat was covered in snail slime was priceless. Not that she didn’t get her boots covered in the clear, sticky fluid but his grimace and how he picked it out of his hair reminded her of the fun times; and that he wasn’t completely lost to whatever drew him toward death and destruction. 

Again he returned Donna to Earth and a few hours later, he left. Laughter faded, replaced by concern when she landed on a treeless world of black sand and volcanic activity. Billows of dust swirled in the distance, evidence of his trail.

She followed and watched as he smashed snails beneath his feet and not just any snails. He was so bloody determined to create a paradox. With clenched fists and her face flushed with more than the planetary heat, she fumed at his recklessness. She screamed internally at this burden placed on her – to love him but hate him for purposefully causing harm to time and all living things. It was petty and selfish and she was ready to howl like the wolf she was.

A familiar pounding headache reminded her of a choice she made long ago. With one final step into the searing embrace of the vortex, she accepted her place in time. Her human mind couldn’t comprehend the convulsion of the universe or the ever so slight changes to the web of time. It snipped, wove, knotted, renewed and dissolved simultaneously around her. She was the architect, the destroyer, the defender, and the big bad wolf.

And she accepted all of that with an open heart even when he was being a complete git. With those golden thoughts swirling in her mind, she ran back to the TARDIS who welcomed her with a mourning tone.

“Look I get it. Something’s not right. I know it’s not the right time or place but he’s going to rip a hole in the universe if we don’t stop him.”

The TARDIS didn’t seem surprised. Her cloister bells remained silent. 

“You just assume I’m going to fix it?” Rose tapped her fingers on the coral console and snorted. “Maybe I’m tired of fixing his shite. He knows better. He’s the all-powerful Time Lord.” She rolled her shoulders and trailed her fingers over the controls before she spotted a blinking yellow light.

A smiled quirked her face. “At least you know he’s gone over the edge.” She pressed a switch and the TARDIS shook. Rose knew a time wave when she felt one. Good, it would give him a headache and maybe make him think twice before taking vengeance on a species that hadn’t even evolved enough to know to run.”

She slipped out and slumped down behind a nearby boulder wincing at the scent of sulfur. “Bloody wanker Time Lord,” she muttered and reached in her pack for a canteen of water. She heard him cursing before she saw him and snickered at how he gripped his head.

“Serves you right for acting like some rubbish vengeful god.” The cool water slid down her throat and she wiped beads of sweat from her forehead. The squeak and thump of the door was her cue to leave. She was so taking a break after this one. A spa planet sounded lovely.

Just as she stood up and hit the coordinates for her next trip she heard a familiar hoarse voice.

“Rose.”

They locked gazes and dark eyes bored through her. Her heart almost beat out of her chest. And she felt time swirl in a maelstrom around them. Everything in her screamed “Doctor” and she shifted forward but stopped like she hit an invisible wall. Something was still off. Her temples throbbed and she gripped her head even as she heard his trainers crunching through gravel and sand. 

She had to leave. But the onslaught of his thoughts, gutted and desperate, repeating her name over and over was difficult to resist.

Tears falling down her face and with her breath hitched she croaked out, “I’m sorry. It’s not time yet.”

She shut her eyes and disappeared hurtling through time and landing not on a spa planet but, Cardiff and into the arms of an old friend.


End file.
